Kickstarter Katchup – 8th December

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Almost everybody was a winner last week so it would be greedy of us to expect a stocking packed with success this week as well. There is something in my threadbare footwear though and it’s a project I sadly etched into the ‘losers’ column so recently that I didn’t even have time to recognise its return before it passed its new goal. Antharion shot past its $10,000 target after just six days of its second campaign had passed. In other developments, Meriwether emerges from the wilderness and knocks both of my socks (distinct from my stockings) straight off my feet, David Braben and Chris Roberts indulge in SpaceChat and Peter Molyneux’s GODUmentary continues to raise smiles and eyebrows.

The Rules

Featuring a game in this list doesn’t mean we endorse it. We likely haven’t played, and as such can’t say whether it will be worth your cash. That’s your call.

Letting me know about a game (which you can do via my name at the top of this article) doesn’t mean it will definitely be included. Leaving links in the comments is a good way to let other readers know about projects, but please email me if you want them considered for the list. Include the word Kickstarter in the subject line too if you care about making my life even slightly easier.

We only include games where pledges reach developers only if the target is met.

Projects asking for fifty billion dollars, with 45c in pledges, fall off the list eventually. It gives more space for other games.

Projects that have reached their funding get included in the Winners list, and then aren’t featured in the weeks after that, to give more attention to those that are still needing the cash. Tough if you don’t like it.

Be aware that there are two currencies in play. Always check!

Please switch off mobile phones while in the Katchup, unless you are viewing the Katchup on a mobile phone in which case please switch off reality.

Well, who’s the big stupidface now? Some guy called Adam Smith, that’s who. A couple of weeks ago the incomparable nincompoop had this to say: “Orphic are planning to launch a new campaign in a week’s time, although if I were them I’d take the time out to refresh, rethink and enjoy some festivities…timing could be everything.” I just hope he’s glad that the success of the new Kickstarter and the likelihood that the original goal of $15,000 will be met means this exciting and enormous turn-based RPG has the means necessary to come into being next summer. I’ll ask him.

Pro Wrestling X may not have secured the Money in the Bank briefcase but the team are treating this as a near-fall. Development will continue at some point and there’s a suggestion of another funding attempt as well, but more surprising is this:

We learned a lot from this Kickstarter. Most importantly we learned what we need to do next. You need to get your hands on something and PLAY IT. We’re going to do that. Soon. I’m talking days here. Not weeks. Our lead programmer wants Uprising beta in the wild by Tuesday. I want to make that happen.

Dungeon-delving card game Below has been pulled from Kickstarter before time ran out. Here’s the new plan:

This is a passion project for me and I’ve agreed to take it over as a separate venture from my freelance work with Failbetter. For the immediate future, Below will be my day job. A lot of work has already been put into the game, and while the economics of finishing it may not make sense for a whole company, as a (mostly) one-man show it’s more viable.

Even though backers won’t pay out a penny, they’ll still receive something for their support.

If you drop me an email at chris@belowgame.com I’ll make you an honorary Venturer – all Venturers will receive an invitation to Below’s beta and exclusive in-game content when the final game is released. This content won’t be available through other means – it’s a one-off, special ‘thank you!’ to everyone who supported this kickstarter.

I’ll just come right out and say this: Meriwether is absolutely fascinating. It’s an RPG based on the Lewis and Clark expedition in which play is divided into Lewis levels, with a narrative focus, and travel levels, which involve travel and exploration. This could involve searching for lost expedition members or observing flora, fauna and geographic features, all taking place across procedurally generated terrain. The latest update examines the possibilities of the travel sections and it all adds up to one of the most interesting pitches I’ve seen on Kickstarter. Developer Joshua DeBonis tells me, “I fell in love with the story a few years ago while camping along the Lewis and Clark trail, and I knew I had to make a game about it.” Inspiration, ho!

Cardiff-based Martin Onions has a dream – he wants to make the planets sing. He’d also quite like you to make the planets sing and that’s why he’s developed a music creation game that encompasses several galaxies.

As the player completes a section of music they can call in another star to continue the composition or start a new track. At any time the player will be able to leave their composition and engage with a new galaxy. The amount of compositions that are created in each galaxy are represented visually to the user, this means that the more tracks that are created in the space the larger and more colorful the galaxy will become.

I feel like I’ve seen this survival RPG before and that’s not a snide way of suggesting it looks derivative, because it doesn’t – I genuinely think I’ve looked at the Kickstarter page before but, if so, why didn’t I include it? Maybe in the past I hated the idea of managing a base in a post-apocalyptic environment, managing resources and survivors alike, but if that’s the case then I hate the man I used to be. Even though Forsaken Fortress doesn’t look particularly derivative, if I had to compare it to other games I’d say it has a bit of NEO Scavenger, a bit of Fallout and a drop or two of Dead State. The latter, of course, hasn’t been released yet, in an form, so similarities are entirely conceptual and in my head.

I’ve enjoyed Craig Stern’s work in the past and was excited to see a move from more traditional RPG patterns toward pure turn-based tactics. There aren’t many games similar to Fire Emblem on the PC – or at least nobody tells me about them – and I’ve always enjoyed the mid-to-late game combat more than anything else in Craig’s work, so this seems ideal. As with Forsaken Fortress, I’m a tad confused as to how I managed to miss this off last week’s Katchup. All of my lapses are most likely due to government interference in my browsing, thinking and educational development. The frequent updates contain plenty of info, so do take a look.

Unforgotten Quest is a 2D co-op RPG that has sprung from an online cartoon series, Unforgotten Realms. I haven’t seen the show but I reckon there is probably humour based on fantasy and RPG tropes because that’s how web cartoons work. The main appeal, judging by the Kickstarter page, will be the game’s irreverent approach to questing, as well as the 2-4 player co-op.

This is the kind of game where every time you are given multiple choices, there is no “good guy”, “bad guy”, or “neutral” choice. Only three random choices, where the game constantly skews the line between right, wrong, and insane. The kind of game where things you always wanted to do can be overdone, and where you can do it all with friends.

There aren’t many updates on the Kickstarter page but there is plenty of discussion and feedback on the forums

Dungeon Keeper locks horns with a modern RTS in War for the Overworld and it’s been an excellent week for the project. The takings have doubled and although there’s still a hefty sum to raise, there’s a hugely encouraging update in the form of the video below. It’s all about support for modding and, hey, there’s going to be extremely robust support for modding! The developers are also outsourcing some of their work, although not quite in the manner of InXile. These fellows just want your best evil laugh.

Whatever complaints you might have about Project GODUS’ (omni)presence on Kickstarter, it’s hard to fault the frequency of 22 Cans updates, or indeed the open nature of development. Peter and chums appear to be filming a reality TV show tracking every aspect of development and you can see the latest episode of ‘So You Think You Can Molyneux’ below. I must admit, I enjoying watching these. A lot.

Pledging has been slow this week but success is tantalisingly close. Enemy animations can be seen in the most recent update. Don’t click on the link if you’re allergic to pixelly people or you might cough up your innards all over your keyboard.

So close! In fact, by the time you read this, Predestination might even be wondering why it isn’t in the winners’ saloon drinking neat gin and devouring the free wasabi peanuts. There’s a reason for that. Normally I man the bar at the Katchup on a Saturday morning, idly polishing a glass while I ponder the misadventures of the night before, but today is Friday. I won’t be at a computer tomorrow – I’ll be here instead – so inaccuracies may develop overnight. To the matter at hand though. Predestination has the potential to be a grand 4X strategy game and if you like the idea of owning everything in space, it may be of interest.

There are dozens of reasons for Dizzy’s slow progress but as I was thinking back to my experiences with the games I realised there was one thing that made the egg haunt my sleep. I can’t remember which game it was in, or even if it was a feature of several, but I do remember making Dizzy jump and then losing the will to live as he landed and immediately rolled into a pit. I know he was an oval but he did have legs, so why didn’t he use them to steady himself?. Jump, land, roll, die. A recent update includes a survey asking for thoughts on how Dizzy should speak. “Positive and friendly to everyone, no matter who they are” is winning. I really hope he doesn’t meet Piers Morgan. The only vocal style I could think of in the two minutes I’ve spent thinking about Dizzy today was ‘confrontational and albumentative.’ Sorry.

New tiers have been added, allowing pledgers more ways to have their creature designs included in the Notzilla monster-puncher.

We are adding new reward tiers at $35 and $100 which allow you to nominate (or “sponsor”) one original kaiju idea for inclusion. This can be your own idea, or a friend’s idea, or just one you’ve seen on the forums or the Facebook fan gallery. At the end of the campaign, we’ll pick one sponsored character for every $500 pledged in this way (we’ll even round up). We’ll weight the choice by the number of sponsors each character has received.

Elite’s slowest week ends with a two-part, three-way interview between gaming wordsmith and Walking Dead writer Gary Whitta, Wing Commander Chris Roberts and Dangerous David Braben. You can see that below. I bet they talk about space.

Could I have been wrong twice in the last couple of weeks? First I cast doubt on Antharion’s immediate plunge back into the potentially cash-deprived Christmas waters of Kickstarter but I also anticipated a landslide of money-mountains to slide into SPORTSFRIENDS’ pockets, terraforming my metaphors along the way. Antharion proved me wrong and I fear that SPORTSFRIENDS might as well. Four (plus bonus) multiplayer games for $15. These are actual games that already exist, including the bonkers Johann Sebastian Joust. The developers have sensibly included a picture of a cat next to an award in their latest update, but will even that delightful image be enough to guarantee victory?

Progress is still slow for The Ship’s sequel and I failed to talk to Blazing Griffin this week because I was busy and ill, although not always at the same time. I’ll endeavour to learn more in the very near future.

55 Comments

I’m all sold into Telepath Tactics. Fire Emblem’s permadeath for characters plus all available extras from Disgaea like push, throw or dangerous terrain. PC have been asking for this game for years, and it comes with a demo :D

We’re used to Games Workshops pricing levels, as a result EU gamers tend to make sure they have inordinate amounts of disposable cash in case we see something cool that we want to have. :)

I am of course joking, I have honestly no idea why anyone would spend this much on a kickstarter unless they had money to burn to begin with.

The highest I’ve gone so far is $270 for a miniature game on kickstarter (Sedition Wars) and another $275 for Star Citizen. But that’s pretty much my personal limit, I really need to have faith in what they’re doing to go that far.

Besides, Project Eternity had 5 people at $10k mark, every project has these people. These likely include some industry people (I think Notch has mentioned backing things for $10k), and just wealthy people who like games – no matter where they’re from.

Thanks for the tip. Just backed it. The story sounds interesting and I dig the art-style (of the demo material, at least). Their concept art makes it look like they intend it to be more realistic, but the current footage evokes thoughts of a 3D Space Quest. :)

It looks very ambitious and has a lot of strong backing from other guys in the industry. I don’t understand how this has not been making the rounds, yet?!

I’m not sure what you mean by “90s style”. It appears to me that their art-style is very high-end, realistic science-fiction/space-opera. The content for the first half of the video looks like it’s probably plain and simple, because it’s just the unfinished models in an engine, without texturing or anything else.

Oh, now you can’t press the DOWN key to read the kickstarter web site because it opens a full screen video. Good job, KS, that’s one of the most annoying features I’ve seen in a while! (Google redirects the DOWN key in a similarly annoying fashion but at least that can be disabled)

edit: Actually it’s pressing UP while on top of the page that opens the video. Still stupid.

Wow. I spend a lot of time on Kickstarter and I didn’t know about that until you mentioned it. That is very annoying and, probably the least useful thing they could be spending resources on. They need a lot of work on making it easier to navigate and monitor just specific categories on their site and get RSS feeds/various updates just for those sections. And improve managing large selections of projects that you’re backing. Not add some goofy “lean back” mode that I’ll never use. I’m sure they’ll make it a toggle-able option, though.

I agree on the lack of feeds. Sadly a lot of sites neglect RSS/Atom feeds as a pretty comfortable way of keeping up with sites. Yes, I would prefer feeds to use JSON instead of XML to be even smaller and easier accessible, but the total lack on sites like Blip and the really borked GameTrailers system (the site as a whole is annoying as hell after the relaunch) is ridiculous.

I’ve pleaded with Kickstarter on multiple occasions to *please* just allow something simple like “show me all projects in X category, sorted by whatever field”. It’s not better than RSS, but at least I could just visit every day and say “show me everything in the Videogames category, by descending date”.

Instead, you have to click “Discover –> Recently Launched” and scroll through hundreds of projects per week just to find the few that might be game-related and then sort out which are board games and which are video games. It’s awful. Especially considering the fix is simple to implement. Hell, it doesn’t have to even be real time. Cache the resulting pages for a few hours, for all I care. :)

I was very annoyed when I realised that they stopped giving you alerts on the site for the starred projects. I just to just check all the activities there. I sent a complaint about it and they said they’d send through the feedback. It’s a very annoying change and has meant that I haven’t really been keeping track of projects since then. I imagine it’s a huge setback for projects too as now people just don’t know if there’s been updates at all. I really don’t understand the reasoning behind these changes.

I think sportsfriends has a lot of conceptual problems that have prevented it from getting more support. The main one is that the games require different controllers. There’s also the fact that they don’t know if they can put Joust on the PC, and the games are bundled into their own distro of Linux which you put on a thumbdrive and then boot up.

It’s a shame because the concepts are fascinating and I would love to start seeing some local competitive love for the PC. It’s a $95k now so at least it is seeing some positive movement.

My problem with that one is that it all feels too hippy-dippy. Like I don’t eat enough granola or wear tight enough pants to sit around the cafe with my Sony Move controller with all of my trendy awesome SF friends, playing Johan Sebastian Joust and all the other games. In fact, that’s how I’ve felt about Joust since I first saw anything about it.

Then, I realized I was being a douche and, even though I’d never play it, I should shut up and back it. I know, dumb — but it seemed like the quickest way to wedge myself out of the habit of being down on things that aren’t for me and being all jerky about it. :P

I think the biggest problem it’ll have with being a huge break-out success is . . . well . . . the lack of PS3 ownership. And, among owners of it, the lack of Move ownership.

I can’t tell what I’ll be able to run on a PC, what I’ll be able to run without booting to a memory stick, what will require other people in the same room, what will require special controllers, etc. And it’s too exhausting to figure it out.

Plus, the games are art-house stuff. Things I’ll play once, go “hunh, clever” and never touch again. I feel like I can get as much enjoyment as I’ll ever get out of these titles from reading about their clever ideas and then moving on to a game with meat on its bones.

Like the above poster, I feel like I should just shut up and give them my money because they’re “fighting the good fight.” But I just don’t see any FUN here. Just art for art’s sake.

I’m in agreement with both of you – it is currently rather an obtuse thing to figure out and would benefit greatly from a clear, simple list of what runs what, what hardware is needed and so forth, all clearly listed on the front page. Hell, the description of J.S Joust is vague enough anyway, hardly surprising that this package is lacking in clarity if it’s headed up by them. Also agree with Brantheg’s comment – I own a PS3, but I don’t own a Move and nor do I intend to. Hence, Joust is out of the question.

Don’t agree with the “just art for art’s sake” comment, though. (Do agree that it’s being run by a bunch of hipsters). Had hours of fun playing Pole Riders with friends, and the other games (Bari Bari Ball in particular) look pretty decent. They’re definitely getting a pledge from me, though I won’t be the one to push them over their goal.

I was one of the first to stumble across this and back it. Based on the many crowd-funding projects I’ve observed over the last three years, I’d like to offer a couple suggestions that may help your project (if not this time, then if you don’t hit your mark and have to relaunch it):

First, state the platforms right up-front. I know it has an entry in your FAQ, but people want to know this as soon as possible, or you risk losing them to the next click. I’d either include it in the title “Oxygen: A turn-based strategy game for PC/MAC” and/or in the summary that goes right below the video.

Second, when people are backing a project, they’re backing the people as much as the product. Don’t be shy — feature yourselves in the video. If nothing else, have someone give a bit of a voice-over to describe yourselves, your history, your plans, your credentials, and so on. If possible, have one or more of the crew on camera, presenting the game and your project. The most successful projects put the person or people behind it right up front and center.

I know that may be a lot of additional effort for the small amount you guys are asking for, but it can potentially make a significant impression on people who come across your page.

Thank you Branthog,
We really appreciate your pledge ! and your feedback.
We will also try and include a personal pledge in the video, to better showcase the team working on the project. and I have corrected the platforms in the main description as well.

I find the $15 price tag on Antharion to be a bit steep. Even if I were getting the game immediately after the payment, that would still be a steep price. It’s nice to support indies, but Kickstarter is not a charity website, so those who just want to pre-order the game should be charged a reasonable price.

Kickstarter is not a preorder service, when will you people understand? You are funding a development process and it’s possible, even probable, that you pay more than the final price of the product just because it was needed to finish it. If the game is really finished, which KS can’t legaly assure.

Devs love to word it that way though because people generally want a reward for their contribution – namely the game that they think they’re funding. It’s not a pre-order but lots of people treat it like one because they expect a copy of the game at the end of it. It’s just that the money is (presumably and hopefully) going into making that game right now.

I only ever pay how much I would pay for a game of similar apparent scale and quality for Kickstarters, and I see nothing wrong with this approach. If $40 for an indie game was enough to make an indie dev happy, that’s about how much I’ll Kickstart for. I’ll only ever pay how much I think the project is worth. Enobayram clearly doesn’t think the reward tier is worth it for what they’re proposing. I don’t think you can really criticise him for that. You can disagree with it, but devs are adept at using reward tiers to drum up more cash since Kickstarter pages are basically marketing devices these days, so his expectations isn’t exactly unrealistic if devs are going to play it that way.

I guess we all have different opinions about what Kickstarter is, and that’s fine. My point is, when the game is finished, they’ll never be able to sell it for $15, they might try it for a week. Not to mention it’ll probably end up in an indie bundle before long. Now I, personally, am not incredibly excited by the project and since they’ve already collected what they’ve asked for, all the extra is just icing on top. So, instead of waiting for the launch and buying the game then (which is still charity in my book, since by the time I have the time to play the game its price will be less than a third) I’d like to pay them now and help them pay the bills today.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been a few projects where I’ve paid much more than the game price. Even those that I’ve paid more than my reward tier requires. All I’m saying is, if I just want to pre-order a game, that should be an option. I’m personally not getting anything more than waiting for the release and buying the game then anyway. Those who are really excited can pay whatever they want.

$15 is more than reasonable for an RPG of the scope they claim to be producing, and indeed other indie RPGs have sold at that price or (more commonly) above it for years. I don’t know that it’s the optimal price, necessarily. But it’s fair.

People back different things with different amounts for various reasons. Ultimately, it’s neither a charity nor a sales transaction or pre-order of any sort. In practice, it sort of is — or it is heavily implied by absolutely everything about the process of backing most crowd-funded projects except the boilerplate.

Crowd-funded projects need the capital to get started and/or finish their project. For many projects, it’s not just that you’re giving them some cash to get a game (or whatever) in return. It’s that your contribution is helping make the thing even possible, in the first place. If I want to wait for someone else to fund something they think the world demands and then pay for it when it is a finished product sitting on the shelves, I can do that. It’ll be Call of Duty 27 or Madden 9-billion or Halo 12. But if I want something that could have a large enough niche audience to be made and pay the developer’s bills (even though it’s not big enough to be of any interest to a traditional investor or publisher, even if it makes a profit), then I might need to back them *now* instead of waiting for it to be on the shelves. If everyone waited for it to be on a shelf, it might never get that opportunity.

That isn’t the case with every project. Many are clearly by some small studio just looking to rake in a few bucks in their final days of development and it’s coming out no matter what. But in many cases, whether the project ends up being something you can ever buy rests entirely on the support of those who want to see it made.

I’ve backed hundreds of projects and that is the attitude I approach almost all of them with. It is not an attitude I suggest everyone needs to have and I certainly don’t advise that people spend their whole entertainment budget on day-dreams. If your entertainment budget is $50/mo, that is probably better spent on stuff that you can actually enjoy today. But if you have a little “gosh, I’d give anything for this game to exist” cash and something strikes your interest . . . :)

From my perspective it seems people usually spend without thinking during the Christmas Season. Higher tips at restaurants, more impulse buys, etc, even though they are also buying gifts and stuff. They tend to worry about it after the Holidays and tighten up their wallets then.

I kind of dig the Legend of Dungeon Kickstarter. They’ve already raised about $22k of the $5k they wanted for this 4-player Co-Op rogue-like. It’s kind of gorgeous and the husband and wife team of RobotLovesKitty area already fairly established in the indie scene (Neverdaunt:8bit was an IGF finalist last year).

It’s the kind of awesome little game that gets me the most giddy on Kickstarter, frankly.

Meh, simple statistical trending is a woefully inaccurate way to describe a Kickstarter. Especially one so adamant on providing near-constant updates, including an upcoming playable prototype (though I worry that the campaign will be over before that’s available).

Yeah, the charting has been pretty poor at modelling many of the higher target Kickstarters. Several recent projects received 50% of their funding in the final week after several media personalities got on board. Others stalled about a week and a half in and went nowhere. Charting seems to work best with smaller projects running largely on word of mouth and accidental discovery, which would have a more predictable curve. Still, I’m yet to see 22cans pull in interest from the likes of TotalBiscuit so this one is clearly tending towards missing its target unless something big changes. I’ve not seen any direct correlations yet between frequency of updates and sudden infusions of funding.

It’s a single example, with all of the caveats that come with that, but Planetary Annihilation’s daily pledge amounts: link to kicktraq.com

They saw bumps on the day of a number of major updates (or the day after, depending on timing). I wouldn’t quite call it a direct correlation between frequency of updates and funding amounts (I’d put it more to the content than the frequency, IMO), but it does show that updates can have a positive effect on funding.

No mention of Pathfinder Online? It raised 281K of its million dollar goal in its first few days. I’m a bit scared to get excited about another MMO but it’s looking like a less grindy fantasy-themed version of EVE Onine which is pretty much exactly what I’m looking for in an MMO.

the way I see it, Mr. Molyneux pays the pledging target out of his chump change money without twitching an eye. Hell, the promotion to have it on the KS main page probly costs a big portion of it. They way they guy rolled that tablet in the video… and the name.. 22Cans.. yeah… he’s not even trying anymore, this is a promotion campaign